1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a print holder suitable for observing an image of good quality at any time, which can preserve the print recorded on paper, etc., according to an ink jet recording process without deteriorating its appearance and with prolonged durability and can serve the desired purpose right after the recording.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The ink jet recording process is a recording process for performing recording on a recording material such as paper, cloth, resin film, etc. by throwing droplets of a recording liquid from recording head orifices and has advantages such as less noise generation, high speed recording without requirements for special fixation treatment, and a possibility for full color image recording, and various types of the process have been extensively studied.
The prints recorded according to the ink jet recording process are not always satisfactory in durability of recorded images after recording in terms of such as water resistance, solvent resistance, light fastness, wear resistance, etc. Owing to the recording liquid so far used (the recording liquid contains a recording agent such as dye, etc., as a basic component and water or a mixture of water and various organic solvents as a main solvent), and further have problems such as much time being required for drying and fixation after the recording and deterioration of recorded images being liable to occur during their preservation, that is, instability in preserving the prints.
To overcome the problem of poor durabilities in preservation, a laminating treatment of prints with transparent resin films having good durabilities is known, for example, in the fields of ordinary photographic prints and printing prints as a method for simply endowing the desired durability to the prints, thereby improving the stability in preservation.
The whole print can be uniformly covered with a transparent resin film according to the laminating treatment, and the surface of the print can be given durability as to such matters as water resistance, light fastness, etc., with the resin film.
However, when such a laminating treatment is applied to an ink jet print and when the whole ink jet print is laminated with the resin film without taking enough time in drying and fixation, the solvent component, etc., remain on the recorded image owing to the low drying speed of other components than the necessary recording agent, etc., in the ink jet recording liquid for forming an image, for example, a solvent component, and the presence of such remaining undried materials may lead to undesirable deterioration such as discoloration of the recorded image, blurring, etc.
On the other hand, if one takes much time in drying and fixation after the recording, there is the trouble that the print cannot serve the desired purpose right after the recording.
Thus, it may be possible to prevent deterioration of recorded image due to the remaining components of recording liquid by conducting the laminating treatment so that only the image-recorded side of the print may be laminated with a transparent resin film to protect the recorded image, whereas no lamination is made on the back side to make the back side open and have the remaining components such as solvent component, etc. evaporated at the back side. However, when the laminating treatment is applied only to one side of the print, the print is liable to curl due to the shrinkage of the resin film, resulting in such a inconvenience that the print is hard to observe or preserve.